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glamour.

Originally, enchantment; magic charm; especially, the effect of a spell that causes one to see objects in a form that differs from reality, typically to make filthy, ugly, or repulsive things seem beauteous.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈɡlæmə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈɡlamə/British, Northern-England, Southern, Standard, Wales/ˈɡlaməɾ/Scotland/ˈɡlæmɚ/General-American
  1. Originally, enchantment; magic charm; especially, the effect of a spell that causes one to see objects in a form that differs from reality, typically to make filthy, ugly, or repulsive things seem beauteous.

    uncountable
  2. Alluring beauty or charm (often with sex appeal).

    uncountable
  3. Any excitement, appeal, or attractiveness associated with a person, place, or thing; that which makes something appealing.

    uncountable
    The idea of being a movie star has lost its glamour for me.
  4. Any artificial interest in, or association with, objects, or persons, through which they appear delusively magnified or glorified.

    countable · uncountable
  5. A kind of haze in the air, causing things to appear different from what they really are.

    countable · uncountable
  6. An item, motif, person, image that by association improves appearance.

    countable
  7. A beautiful woman.

    countable · slang
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Scots glamour (“magic”), alteration of Middle English gramere (“grammar”), from Old French gramaire. Doublet of glamoury, gramarye, grammar, and grimoire. A connection has also been suggested with Old Norse glámr (“the moon", also "the name of a ghost”, poetic byname, literally “the pale one”) and glámsýni (“glamour, illusion”, literally “glam-sight”). From Grettir's Saga aka Grettis Saga, one of the Sagas of Icelanders, after the hero has been cursed by Glam, aka Glamr: "...he was become so fearsome a man in the dark, that he durst go nowhither alone after nightfall, for then he seemed to see all kinds of horrors. And that has fallen since into a proverb, that "Glam lends eyes", or gives Glamsight to those who see things nowise as they are."

verb/ˈɡlæmə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈɡlamə/British, Northern-England, Southern, Standard, Wales/ˈɡlaməɾ/Scotland/ˈɡlæmɚ/General-American
  1. To enchant; to bewitch.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Scots glamour (“magic”), alteration of Middle English gramere (“grammar”), from Old French gramaire. Doublet of glamoury, gramarye, grammar, and grimoire. A connection has also been suggested with Old Norse glámr (“the moon", also "the name of a ghost”, poetic byname, literally “the pale one”) and glámsýni (“glamour, illusion”, literally “glam-sight”). From Grettir's Saga aka Grettis Saga, one of the Sagas of Icelanders, after the hero has been cursed by Glam, aka Glamr: "...he was become so fearsome a man in the dark, that he durst go nowhither alone after nightfall, for then he seemed to see all kinds of horrors. And that has fallen since into a proverb, that "Glam lends eyes", or gives Glamsight to those who see things nowise as they are."

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.